DESCRIPTION:
Engelbert Humperdinck, (1854-1921), born in Hanover, Germany was a composer best remembered for his opera Hänsel and Gretel based on the familiar fairy tale.
He studied at Cologne and at Munich and in 1879 a Felix Mendelssohn scholarship enabled him to go to Italy, where he met Richard Wagner, who invited him to assist in the production of his opera Parsifal. Humperdinck later taught at the Barcelona Conservatory and at Frankfurt, where he was also music critic of the German newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung.

His early works were the choral ballads Die Wallfahrt nach Kevelaar, Das Glück von Edenhall, and the Humoreske for orchestra. Hänsel and Gretel, conducted by Richard Strauss, was produced at Weimar on Dec. 23, 1893. The libretto, by the composer's sister Adelheid Wette, was based on the folktale made familiar by the brothers Grimm. In this work Humperdinck showed an understanding of a child's mind and a sense of poetry, notably in the atmosphere of the woodland scene at twilight and in the realistic effects in the episode of the broken milk jug; the Wagnerian harmonies, the simple tunes, and the resourceful orchestration maintain the musical interest on a high level.

During the course of his musical career, Humperdinck supplemented his compositional activities with turns as a music editor, critic, and, at various times, a music teacher; Wagner's son Siegfried was one of his pupils.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Humperdinck's name was again on the lips of the public; in this case, however, "Engelbert Humperdinck" was the new persona (chosen from a music dictionary) of a pop balladeer formerly known as Arnold Dorsey, fondly or not-so-fondly remembered for his stagey rendition of "Release Me." The two, needless to say, are not related.

Hänsel and Gretel Opera: Evening Prayer
Performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers
Leonard Slatkin, Conductor